KAWAGIB commemorates Jabiddah Massacre, calls for justice to victims of state terror

Cotabato City – KAWAGIB, a Moro human rights organization, gives homage to the men, women and children who have fallen victims to the repressive policies of the government.

The group is commemorating the Jabiddah Massacre where a still unconfirmed number of young Moro men recruited for a covert military operation were mercilessly killed by their superiors. According to its lone survivor, Jibin Arula, 23 died on that fateful event.

The event has been pivotal in arousing Filipino Muslims to rise up in arms and assert their right to self-determination. To this day, it evokes the pang of an abusive and repressive regime.

“Forty one years after that infamous incident in Corregidor, the government still continues to engage in deceptive ploys to pacify or suppress the legitimate cry of Filipinos particularly the Bangsamoro,” KAWAGIB Spokesperson Bai Ali Indayla said.

KAWAGIB is calling for justice to the victims of extra-judicial killings and recent massacres believed to be perpetrated by government forces such as in Barangay Tee in Datu Piang, Maguindanao on September 08, 2008 and Maimbung, Sulu on February 4, 2008.

Indayla said the incidents in Barangay Tee and Maimbung that claimed the lives of 12 civilians including 2 pregnant woman and 6 children, and other documented accounts of grave human rights violations are telltales of a despotic rule and the intensity of the state terror perpetrated by the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“The mounting human rights violations committed by the Arroyo regime are quite appalling. We strongly condemn these atrocities and her stay in power,” she said.